Northern College Good Practice Guide in Teaching and Learning

5.1 The uniqueness of the Northern College as an institution has been its ability to bring learning to those sections of the adult community that do not usually access formal educational provision. The reason for its success in this area is that the College has managed to win - often with considerable effort - the confidence and trust of people before they ever enrol on a formal course.

5.2 The process by which this is done is usually referred to as 'outreach and development work'. It may take a number of forms, depending on the nature of the communities, groups, and individuals targeted. As a concept, outreach not only has a long and changing history, but describes a number of related but distinct current practices in lifelong learning and adult education. Some of its more common meanings are:

the activity of an institution in making contact and fostering relations with target groups
the extension of services to those not usually accommodated by an institution
the provision of support for the community
the establishment of links and networks with individuals and groups
curriculum development
a way or style of working
the targeting of provision to those who tend to be non-users

In the College's work outreach figures prominently and constitutes a wide and multi-dimensional process involving a variety of activities and stages.

5.3 The College has undertaken the various activities and stages of outreach through the tutor organisers who have responsibility to manage local authority or 'Company Member' programmes. It has also gradually expanded and added new dimensions to outreach, especially after 1993, through the work of its Coalfields Learning Project (CLP), its Steel Areas Regeneration Project (STAR) and its Animateur Training Schemes, in the form of capacity building.

5.4 Given its formal partnership arrangements, the College is committed to recruit students according to the priorities set and monitored by the Liaison Groups that it has established with the Local Authorities concerned. These priorities are often to do with providing education and training to those who live in particular localities, those who are underrepresented in Further and Higher Education courses (black people, people with disabilities, women with children, etc.) and those who are engaged in community regeneration or capacity building work.

5.5 Generally, the College's recruitment strategy for its various programmes is based less on conventional marketing and advertising than on personal contacts. It seeks to win trust and develop confidence amongst members of local community groups, as well as to help them focus upon and address local problems. Its links with the communities serve therefore as both learning and recruitment networks. It creates demand for a range of learning and training courses - sometimes accredited, sometimes non-accredited - which are delivered occasionally in local venues and more frequently in the residential environment of the College, with all the learner support that goes with it.

5.6 The key to success in all these activities and stages is that individuals and groups decide what they will learn, and how they will learn it. The process is genuinely one of discussion and negotiation between tutors and the students concerned. Initially, these discussions focus upon:

what local problems and issues a group will want to address, and how their members should organise themselves to the best advantage
what action they will need to take, and how they should set about drawing up an action plan
what individual and collective knowledge, skills and resources they already have, and what more they will need to acquire to achieve their aims
what information (e.g. local survey, community audit, etc.) and what kinds of consultation they will need to carry out to obtain the support of their community and that of potential funding bodies

This process generates successive stages of recruitment as the students concerned move towards a greater degree of autonomy and eventual independence. At the same time those who are independent as learners are able to share with peers their existing knowledge and skills.

5.7 The College has, of course, other recruitment strategies that are closely bound up with its marketing and promotional activities. These involve:

national, regional and local press advertising
the dissemination of the Prospectus and of long and short course information
participation in local events and the annual Adult Learners' Week
word-of-mouth communication.

While the conventional publicity and advertising work are vitally important in raising the College's profile, they are mainly important in recruitment for the full-time Diploma programme.

5.8 Short course recruitment still depends mainly on word of mouth. Students and ex-students recruit friends and colleagues, or family members, and outreach tutors' contacts through community networks widen the potential student pool on which accredited short course programmes largely depend. Furthermore, a proportion of Diploma students also arrive at full-time education through their involvement in short course programmes. This process already provides clear pathways from the initial stages of returning to learn through the Diploma to university and professional qualifications.